marypcbuk

If you're in the US and you use some species of Microsoft IM client and you don't mind it being Windows Live Messenger, your IMs could raise money for charities like Unicef, the Sierra Club, stopglobalwarming.org and six others. Microsoft is donating money from the ads on IM conversations, with a minimum $100,000 guaranteed donation to each of the nine organizations during the first year of the program. It's kind of viral charity marketing: instead of taking out ads, they're hoping that people will want to do some good and be won over by WLM enough to stick with it. Interesting model...

To get your IMs to count, click the link above or the button below to go to the site, tell them where you live and install WLM. Then choose Tools > Options and after putting your name in for My Display Name add one of these text codes to choose which organisation you want to get a share of the money from the ads you see.

*red+u	American Red Cross
*bgca	Boys & Girls Club
*naf	National AIDS Fund
*mssoc	National Multiple Sclerosis Society
*9mil	ninemillion.org
*sierra	Sierra Club
*help	StopGlobalWarming.org
*komen	Susan G. Komen for the Cure
*unicef	The US fund for UNICEF

<a href="http://im.live.com/?source=WLM80x15"><img src="http://global.msads.net/ads/pronws/WLM.80x15.gif"><img src="http://microsoftwlmessengermkt.112.2o7.net/b/ss/mswlmmktdreamcom/1/H.9--NS/1?ns=microsoftwlmessengermkt&pageName=Module&c3=Module%20WLM80x15" width="0" height="0" border="0"/></a>